Soda Machine Sells Malt Liquor to Kids for $3 in Washington DC

Jessie Rodriguez, 8, and his brother Christopher Rodriguez, 3, drink soda as they sit in the shade in downtown Los Angeles April 8, 2010.

A soda machine in Washington D.C. has been rigged to sell malt liquor instead of the soft drinks it was originally intended to dispense.

The Pepsi machine, located in the Trinidad neighborhood of Washington D.C., has allegedly been tampered with, according to reports from a prominent blogger in the area called Geoffrey Hatchard.

Hatchard, who writes for the blog, The District Curmudgeon, tweeted a message that the Metropolitan Police Department had found a vending machine that had been rigged up to dispense the alcoholic beverages.

The neighborhood association then retweeted the message, confirming the news.

According to DCist, the police have said that the vending machine had been in place for a number of months, but has now been disabled.

Daniella Bays, the Trinidad Neighborhood Association's president, emailed this message to DCist: "The Pepsi machine was in front of a 4-unit apartment and of course no one claimed responsibility for it. It charged $3 for the malt liquor so kids were buying it (cheaper for adults to get at the store)."

It is unclear how someone managed to rig the machine, and many vending machines these days are fitted out with high security equipment to stop tampering and thefts from them.

According to The Huffington Post, Treat America Food Services, which deals in vending machines located on business offices, colleges and hospitals, implement each of their machines with anti-theft gadgetry designed by Cantaloupe Systems that use so-called "seed" technology to, among other things, alert owners when a vending machine door is opened after hours.